Content Count

Points

Content Count

Popular Content

@Shannon Iverson, I am a huge fan of Berry's fiction, as are my kids (college-age and young marrieds). We have collectively read a good bit, and even hosted a summer study series here in our home to discuss his ideas of community as they relate to our church community. So fruitful, and such a lovely bit of summer scholé! I began reading Berry about 10 years ago, and just enjoyed the books, but then began to realize how important his ideas are to the recovery of a classical education in our families and communities. My youngest is 18, and he is the resident Berry scholar. He began reading the books on his own initiative about 2 years ago, and he spurred on his older siblings to read it. I do not think I would read it with younger children, though; I think the value of the stories is enhanced with at least a bit of life experience.
I agree with @JTB_5, the community aspect is the thing that resonates; also he explores some really important ideas about education in all of his books. I just purchased his essay "The Loss of the University" to complement those thoughts, and try to contemplate them a bit more deeply. So...my first foray into Berry non-fiction is now in my (towering) to-be-read stack. There was a discussion about Berry on the Close Reads facebook group a while back, when someone posed the question about whether Berry wants everyone to move out of the city to a farm (short answer: NO way. He will actually tell you in person that you will probably fail if you try to do that). Here are some thoughts I shared:

We naturally separated the kids when they were over 10. The bigs were no longer interested in reading time and wanted to read on their own. (Ours are 6, 8. 11 and 14) I read to the two younger boys at night and once in a while, my 11-year-old will wander in if she wants to. My bigs and I get together on Saturday mornings to chat about our weekly reading without little ears and possibly more mature conversation. We have only had one time when my son was 5 and we got to the part where Charlotte dies in Charlotte's Web, my boy broke out in hysterics! Crying, screaming, "No, NO!" It made me realize his emotional immaturity and yet, I think it helped him grow too. It is a challenge to know when too much is just that or enough to help them along.